Elgan speaks
...and her words thunder across the land

Apples

Saturday, Oct. 1, 2005
10:50 p.m.
Yes, I know this is Entry No. 2 but it was such a beautiful day that I could not go to bed without making mention of it. Hubby and I drove to Stanstead this afternoon to pick apples at the orchard where we have been going every fall for the past 16 years. I was first there 17 years ago, pregnant with Buddy Boy but not telling anyone about it yet, with one of my neighbours from when we lived on the university campus, climbing ladders and otherwise ignoring my �delicate� condition. The orchard is a 10-minute drive from the Vermont border, and as a result there are as many or more green licence plates as there are white ones. The original owners sold the farm and business to a cousin several years ago (their marriage was also over, sadly) and it is the cousin�s husband who looks after the operation now. It was so busy today that he was fairly swamped.

We got our buckets and headed out behind the store where the Empires are located, and we filled up on them, Macintoshes and Spartans, of course sampling from each as we picked. The orchard is not as well tended as when P and M had it, so the apples are smaller, although just as tasty. I ended up climbing two trees to reach the larger apples dangling from the top branches, swaying dangerously as I stretched for the ones just past the comfort zone. We also bought four Jack o� Lantern pumpkins which are now sitting on the front porch awaiting Hallowe�en, several different kinds of squash, some cheddar cheese and a bag of doughnuts (for Buddy Boy, not me).

Tonight Little Princess and her BF invited me to join them for Night B of New Plays, an annual fall event put on by the drama department, where student plays written last year are produced for the public. There were three of them: a rather dark drama, the scenes out of order, where a young man whose girlfriend has been raped seeks vigilante justice, only to realize that he himself is not a killer; a short piece about two orphaned sisters fishing for memories; and a murder mystery/comedy where the butler does it and gets away with it. The latter was very funny and, except for the middle one having slow spots, they were all quite well done.

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